Her Private Life Roundup: Episode 14

Ryan sits on the floor of his room and cries while his mom breaks down at her door. Deok-mi waits for Ryan’s call and when it finally comes, he sounds extremely upset and hangs up after a mere good night. She finds him alone at the gallery and scolds him for hanging up on her. Ryan tells Deok-mi about his adoptive parents and the two drift off on a sofa in the gallery.

The next morning, Director Eom follows Hyo-jin as she takes a bus to work. Cheum employees are shocked to find Ryan and Deok-mi sleeping in the gallery. Sung-min corners Joo-hyuk to ask if Seon-joo likes him. Seon-joo gets mad at Sung-min for doubting her but turns out Sung-min is just trying to introduce Joo-hyuk to his friend in an entertainment agency. He tells Seon-joo that all he wants to do is make her happy and Seon-joo finally forgives him.

Si-an visits Ryan and gives him his mom’s number, asking him to give her a chance to explain. Ryan stares at the number, hesitating to call. Deok-mi comes into his office and makes him look for the hidden messages within Lee Seol’s paintings. Ryan realizes that all the paintings symbolize something he liked as a child and gives his mom a call. They meet at his house and Ryan asks her why she abandoned him. His mom denies having done that and in a flashback, we see that painter Lee Seol had taken her son along for a business meeting and left him at a playground. On her way to pick him up, she had gotten into an accident. After regaining consciousness, she had searched for her son but hadn’t found him.

Ryan leaves the room in tears and goes back to the gallery, where he confides in Deok-mi that he’s having trouble believing his mom’s words. Later that night, Eun-gi meets Deok-mi and reminds her of the time he left home and she dragged him back, saying they were family. He apologizes for making her uncomfortable and asks her to accept his friendship again. She does, and they easily go back to their bickering.

Si-an’s mom sits him down to tell him everything but he confesses to already knowing about her accident and the fact that he has an older brother. Si-an guesses that her talk with Ryan didn’t go well and asks her to give the last painting in the collection to Ryan. He calls Deok-mi and asks her to convince Ryan to see the painting. Meanwhile, while spying on Hyo-jin, Director Eom sees her with Deok-mi’s mom and gets jealous.

Deok-mi asks Ryan to come to an address for the viewing of Lee Seol’s last painting. The address is of a church, where Ryan and Deok-mi find Si-an and his mom waiting inside. Si-an apologizes for bringing Ryan and his mom together without either knowing about it. Deok-mi convinces Ryan to look at the painting as the exhibition director if looking as Heo Yoon-jae is difficult for him. The last painting is of a boy making soap bubbles. Lee Seol reveals that she had left the painting at church as a prayer for her lost son’s protection. Looking at the painting, Ryan regains memories of happier times with his mom.

While the mother and son catch up, Deok-mi sits with Si-an and asks if he’s okay. Si-an confesses that he had been waiting to find his brother and make his mom happy for a long time and thanks her. A flashback reveals that it was Deok-mi who had finally convinced Lee Seol to reveal her last painting. Si-an asks Deok-mi if she’s her fan and she gets flustered. Deok-mi tells Ryan that he should take the rest of the day off to catch up with his mom and little brother.

When Deok-mi gets back to the gallery, Curator Yoo informs her that the dealer has agreed to sell the last two Lee Seol paintings to them. They work their butts off for the exhibition and Deok-mi convinces Ryan to treat them to a company dinner. Eun-gi is with Seon-joo when Deok-mi calls her and mentions Ryan’s Korean name. The name reminds Eun-gi of something and runs to Deok-mi’s place. Over dinner, he asks Deok-mi’s mom the name of “that boy”.

Cheum employees have a team dinner and celebrate Deok-mi’s birthday. Deok-mi’s mom looks at Deok-mi’s childhood photos with the boy Eun-gi mentioned. On the back of one of the photos is the name Heo Yoon-jae. Deok-mi asks Ryan to draw a portrait of her as a birthday gift. Trying really hard, Ryan is finally able to sketch an outline of her shadow by himself. He tells Deok-mi he loves her and they kiss. As the two sleep, we see a flashback of them as kids, playing in what looks like the same playground Yoon-jae’s mom had left him in.

Indoor Enthusiast (Esha) is a staff writer at Kdramapal. She is responsible for bringing all the latest happenings in Kdramaland, as well as features and recaps of currently airing dramas, to the readers of the site. As a gender studies student, she loves analyzing K-dramas through the lens of gender politics and social justice. You're most likely to find her droning on and on about how Ji Hae-soo from It's Okay That's Love and Sung Bora from Reply 1988 are the best heroines to ever grace our screens. Her favorite dramas tend to be thrillers like Secret Forest and Signal, as well as heartwarming shows like Misaeng. When not in the mood for either of those, you can find her binging on shows about female friendships a la Age of Youth or rom-coms that come with sprinklings of feminism, like Because This Life Is My First. She lives in India, spends all her free time reading books, and would love nothing more than to meet Gong Hyo-jin and sign away her life's earnings to the actress.
Indoor Enthusiast can be reached at [email protected]